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Misfit Wearables Launches Its First Tracking Device

Misfit Wearables launched its first device today called Shine, a tiny metal movement tracker. The debut means Shine is now available for early adopters with their participation in crowdfunding for Misfit.

Shine is a quarter-sized metal device meant to be worn as a wristband, a brooch or a clasp. It aims to give users as much information as possible about their daily movements by tracking bike pedals, swim stokes and distance traveled. The device is completely wireless, meaning there’s no way to recharge it. Instead it comes with replaceable battery that lasts up to six months.

Misfit came up with a unique way to sync users’ data to a mobile application. By placing Shine on top of a smartphone, information is wirelessly transmitted. The accompanying app is still being developed, but an experimental alpha version is available in the iTunes App Store now. Also, Shine’s API will be open so that others can create their own apps.

“We’re launching early to see how users will like it, how they’d use it, and where they’d wear it so we can make it better,” CEO and Chairman of Misfit Sonny Vu said in a press release.

Vu founded Misfit in 2011 with John Sculley, the former CEO of Apple and Pepsi, as well as Sridhar Iyengar, co-founder and CTO of AgaMatrix, creator of a blood glucose meter for the iPhone. Their launch comes on the heels of Jawbone’s re-release yesterday of its activity tracker, the UP wristband. UP was revamped after users experienced battery charge problems last year. Fitbit also released its newest device, the Zip, back in September. Its design is meant to make it more water resistant than the original Fitbit device.

Earlier this year, Misfit Wearables raised $7.6 million in a round led by Founders Fund. Crowdfunders can go to Indiegogo to continue to help out and to reserve their own Shine. They can get the tracker for early bird use in March, starting at $59. Shine will retail in the spring of 2013 for $99.